T-15 FILM EXTRACT: Mikayla's Evaluation

Tuesday 3 March 2009

Mikayla's Evaluation

For our film studies practical coursework my group decided to focus on the noir, more specifically the neo-noir genre that has been used in films like "Brick" Rian Johnson, 2005. The choosing of this genre affected many group decisions like the cinematography and sound, the music had to be slow and melancholy. My part of the project, as director, was affected by the neo-noir genre with things such as keeping the pace of the movie constant and instructing the actor to portray the correct emotions and not be too overly dramatic in shots like the one below when he has been shot.

My specific area of micro responsibility was to guide the actor in what we wanted him to achieve and to see the "big picture" as director and make sure that the other members of the group's micro elements fitted together as a whole film. The group worked very well together, we all felt comfortable to make our own suggestions and that they would be listened to and considered, such as when we made and re-made our story board. Most aspects of the film we agreed on so there were no significant disputes and any minor ones were easily resolved by compromise on all parts, an example of this is with the decision to not have the music building up as the film progressed. We had originally thought this would help create tension but after editing the footage we agreed that the music suited the atmosphere and pace better if it stayed slow and pensive throughout the film.

All through the process of making our film extract the group changed lots of little things, such as the music as previously mentioned, and the angles of some of the shots whilst filming, I wanted to see if the shot looked better from different angles so we tried a few. A big adaptation we had to make during production was the voice over, originally we had asked to record the deputy head teacher making a speech to our character but after the recording failed twice we felt it would be easier to ask Ram (Cinematographer) to say the lines rather then bother the deputy head a third time. This worked fine in the film extract and didn't really change anything at all in the way the film extract was perceived.
I was aiming as the director to make the audience curious and tense whilst watching our film extract and also to care about the character and his fate. I think this was achieved by the ambiguous content of the dialogue, leaving the audience uncertain as to the circumstances surrounding this boy. By working with the actor I also hope that our character was portrayed correctly and the audience is intrigued by his fate and is also concerned about the boy as well. I think the setting worked nicely as well because school type buildings always seem somewhat surreal and creepy when other students have left and it's dark outside because of an almost subconscious feeling of it being a forbidden place to be, I think that this, when coupled with the lighting and saturation applied to the film extract makes the atmosphere mysterious and eerie which is very appropriate to the genre and the desired audience reaction of being inquisitive and on-edge.
As director I was not needed for anything particularly technical and therefore my technical abilities did not hinder the production in any way. The small amount of technical work I did do, I was capable of, and the groups technical ability was high so everything we wanted in the film extract was there on that front. Nicola (Editor) successfully spliced together two shots we filmed to create match on action of our actor walking down the hallway, Rachel (Sound Editor) created a praiseworthy piece of music to go with our film extract and Ram handled the filming nicely.
The feedback we received was positive about the range of shots we used, our point of view shot at the end, the setting and the lack of props drawing attention to the character which makes me think they liked the simplicity of film. We also had positive feedback about the pace of the film, the voice over and the music, which I think is what made the atmosphere of the film so successful. Something we could improve on which was pointed out in the feedback was the continuity, we filmed on two separate days and therefore the time of day outside didn't quite match the time of day inside, this could easily be avoided in future films by paying more attention to the time of filming. Another thing we could improve on is giving more explanation in the extract as some people got confused by the ambiguity of our film.
Overall I am very proud of our film extract and believe the group worked well in all aspects to make a good piece of work. I had a lot of fun making this and I learned a lot about transferring film ideas from paper to screen and all that it involves.

Labels: Director, Evaluation, Mikayla Jones

posted by AS Film Studies Students @ 17:20

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